Book Review: The Flame Never Dies (The Stars Never Rise #2), Rachel Vincent

Title: The Flame Never Dies
Series: The Stars Never Rise #2
Author: Rachel Vincent
Published: 16/08/2016, MIRA Ink
Pages: 352
Source: Netgalley
Format: Ebook
Rating: 4/5
ONE SPARK WILL RISE

Nina Kane was born to be an exorcist. And since uncovering the horrifying truth - that the war against demons is far from over - seventeen-year-old Nina and her pregnant sister, Mellie, have been on the run, incinerating the remains of the demon horde as they go.

In the badlands, Nina, Mellie and Finn, the fugitive and rogue exorcist who saved her life, find allies in a group of freedom fighters. They also face a new threat: Pandemonia, a city full of demons. But this fresh new hell is the least of Nina's worries. The well of souls ran dry more than a century ago, drained by the demons secretly living among humans, and without a donor soul, Mellie's child will die within hours of its birth. 

Nina isn't about to let that happen... even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Flame Never Dies is a fantastic conclusion to The Stars Never Rise duology. It just carries Nina's story in a brilliant direction and really is such a quick read. I must admit that as it had been a year since I read The Stars Never Rise, I was a bit sketchy on the details. But the more I read The Flame Never Dies the more I remembered of the first book.

The world building continues to be pretty amazing. I could visualise both the Badlands and Pandemonia so clearly. For being a city full of demons, Pandemonia actually sounds pretty awesome.

The characters were still as brilliant as they were in the first book. Nina is just so likeable even if she is quite pushy when it comes to what she wants. But she is just so protective of everyone she cares about, even if it does put them in danger occasionally. True she is "special" but she isn't the only one so I don't mind this at all. And I still love Finn! I'm just slightly annoyed he wasn't in the story more. I need more Finn! But so much is revealed about his backstory and he has so much more depth to his character now. His situation is heartbreaking.

And the new characters introduced bring so much to the story. True, I wasn't sure about Eli when he first appeared, but he is such a help for Nina and Mellie. And we're finally introduced to Kastor and he is just so evil and different it's brilliant.

Like the first book, The Flame Never Dies is told from Nina's perspective so there is large chunks of the story where you don't know where or what the other characters are up to. I would say that parts of The Flame Never Dies are predictable but there is an equal share of unpredictability. The pace of the story is also super-quick at times and a lot happens in a very short space of time. The ending is also fairly climatic.

The Flame Never Dies is dotted with twists and turns and, as I said, some are more predictable than others. A lot of loose ends are tied up, but the ending is still pretty open. It's a happy-ish ending but not everything is rainbows and butterflies so to speak. And I quite liked this. It made the story more realistic.

I definitely really enjoyed The Flame Never Dies, however, for some reason, I didn't love it as much as I remember loving The Stars Never Rise (but I think my reading preferences have shifted slightly in the past year). I would still definitely recommend the duology though and I can't wait to read more by Rachel Vincent.

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